Category: Music

Jukebox, Uncensored

You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play. Each week, I add a little commentary about some of the artists, songs, albums, etc.

Reunion – Jimmie Dale Gilmore (Spinning Around the Sun) (1)
Why You Been Gone So Long – Micky Newbury (Heaven Help the Child) (2)
Don’t Break No Hearts – Steeplejack (Kitchen Radio) (3)
The Weight – The Staple Singers (Best of) (4)
Circle – Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (Shooting Rubberbands…) (5)
She’s Got a Future in Movies – Doug Stone (From the Heart) (6)
Love in Vain – The Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed) (7)
Virgo Clowns – Van Morrison (His Band & the Street Choir) (8)
Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down – Elvis Costello (Almost Blue) (9)
Going to New York – Jimmy Reed (The Very Best of) (10)

(1) A good song from one of the original Texas masters. Probably my favorite song on my least favorite of his records. Start with After Awhile or, if you want to hear real country music, Fair and Square.

(2) A straight country number off a 1973 record by one of the best, but most under-appreciated, songwriters ever. Micky was a friend of mine, but I can say without the slightest fear of bias that every one of his records from the 70s is a masterpiece. But for how messed up the music industry has become, Micky’s records would all be platnium.

(3) Steeplejack’s 1996 Kitchen Radio is one of my favorite alt. country records. It rocks when it needs to rock and it’s wistful when it needs to be. This is a mid-tempo number with a bite.

(4) They do a very fine, soulful cover of a great song written by Robbie Robertson and made popular by The Band.

(5) I thought Edie was going to be a superstar after I heard this record and saw the band live at Numbers in 1989. This is one of my favorite songs on the record. Their second record was not as good, so she married Paul Simon.

(6) Good straight ahead country song by one of the guys who briefly made country music country again back in the late 80s.

(7) The Stones have always done great blues songs, and this cover of the Robert Johnson song is one of them. A great album that suffered a little by following one of the greatest albums- Beggars Banquet. The albums the Stones did from 1968-72 are simply some of the greatest music ever made.

(8) I like Astral Weeks and Moondance Better, but this is still a fine album. Virgo Clowns is an acoustic, spiritual love song that would have fit well on Moondance or Tupelo Honey.

(9) A great Merle Haggard cover off of one of the best country records ever made. If you have any interest in good country music, you simply have to own this record.

(10) Jimmy Reed rocks. A classic blues number.

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A Songwriter’s Take on the RIAA

riaaIf we didn’t already have enough reasons to hate the RIAA, now it seems that priority-challenged organization is trying to get the FCC to impose copy-protection standards on digital radio. Could there be a more anti-consumer organization in the world? The most irritating thing is that this is an organization that claims to be protecting me.

As a songwriter with numerous songs on commercial records, I actually make a little money in performance royalties. Both I and Err Bear Music, my publishing company, are affiliated with BMI. BMI collects royalties (in this case royalties from radio stations, as opposed to royalties from record sales which are collected by a different agency) and distributes them to songwriters and publishing companies. Every quarter, BMI sends me a little money and a statement showing which of my songs are earning royalties. I’m all for royalties, I just don’t think pissing off the entire world is going to increase my royalties.

As people who make and sell music, we should be more consumer-friendly. Instead, the RIAA makes us look like greedy, paranoid luddites. People have been recording songs off the radio for decades. I did it when I was a kid. I didn’t turn into a song stealing music thief. What I did turn into is a music fan who has bought thousands of CDs, not to mention hundreds of LPs, 8-tracks and cassettes, many of which were bought again on CD.

Copy protection won’t stop a criminal from making copies of a CD any more than gun control will stop violence. It may be harder to copy songs with DRM restrictions, but it can, is and will be done. If someone wants to make and sell illegal copies of a CD, he or she is always going to be able to figure out how to do it- there will always be technology to defeat technology. Heck, I personally know of several album reissues that were done by “needle drop” (i.e., making a second generation master from an ordinary copy of an LP). The people who will be frustrated by these ridiculous limitations are the honest kids who would otherwise grow up to buy thousands of records, just like I did.

Fortunately the EFF is rising to the challenge of bashing the RIAA for this idiocy. The EFF’s comments make good and logical reading. Dwight Silverman reports that even Steve Jobs is calling the RIAA greedy. The more people that call out the RIAA on this sort of thing, the better chance reason has of prevailing.

The RIAA tries to act like it’s looking out for songwriters and performers, but the only group the RIAA is truly interested in is the record label cartel which thinks it can stuff the cat back in the bag and bring people back to the record stores to buy CDs for $15 that cost a dollar or less to produce. That, my friends, is the real agenda. It’s not about my rights or those of any other songwriter or performer.

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My Favorite Records:Allman Brothers – Live at Fillmore East

This is the third part in my series of favorite records.

I’ve talked about the Allman Brothers before, and I’m about to do it again. They put out a lot of great records that combined blues, rock, jazz and country into an excellent sound that serves as the voice of the New South to me and many others who grew up in the South during the 60s and 70s. They have at least four records that could make my list of all-time favorite records.

But I’m going to pick Live at Fillmore East. I love Brothers and Sisters just as much, but I’ve already praised that record. At Fillmore East starts off with the single greatest slide guitar riff ever put on vinyl- Duane Allman’s lead off on Statesboro Blues. Next is a rocking cover of Done Somebody Wrong, an Elmore James song. The defining cover of Stormy Monday follows. You Don’t Love Me is a 20 minute jam that would be the best song on about any other live album. The last two songs, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Whipping Post deliver the knock out punch that understandably became the highlight of the Allman’s excellent live shows.

When I want to introduce someone to good music, particularly blues or southern rock, this is the album I start with. It’s hard to call anything perfect, but Tom Dowd‘s production work on this album is perfect. I have listened to this record hundreds of times and I never get tired of it. A masterpiece performance by the best blues band ever.

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Stones and Other Concerts

Fred Wilson has posted a review from the Stone’s Giants Stadium show last night. He lists the entire set, with a little commentary. I took Cassidy to see the Stones the last time they were in Houston (1/25/03), because one of my graduate school friends went with his parents to see The Beatles when he was four and I wanted to give Cassidy a similar story to tell.

I’ve seen the Stones 4-5 times and have tickets for the Houston show in a few weeks. Absolutely are they great live. Here are a few of my all-time favorite concerts:

1) REM – Fox Theatre, Atlanta (1984): Simply the best rock concert I have ever been to. Every moment was magical.

2) Bruce Springsteen – Charlotte Coliseum (around 1976): He played for 4 hours, including 30 minutes or so after the lights were turned on. I was just getting into Bruce at that point, but I knew I had seen a show I’d never forget.

3) Allman Brothers – Somewhere in Charlotte (around 1979): The only time I have ever seen one of my all-time favorite bands in concert. It was at some outdoor place. I didn’t drive, and I can’t recall exactly where it was.

4) Lynyrd Skynyrd – Charlotte Coliseum (around 1976): Also the only time I ever saw the second greatest southern rock band (behind only the Allmans).

5) Neil Young – Houston Music Hall (around 1987): We were afraid it was going to be a rockabilly show, but it turned out to be a Crazy Horse reunion show and an amazing one.

6) Boz Scaggs – Charlotte Coliseum (around 1977): I got drug to this when all I knew about was Lowdown and before I knew about his blues roots. He rocked the place and I was so glad I went.

There are no Grateful Dead shows on the short list, because even though they are my other all-time favorite band and I saw them 6-7 times, I never caught a magical show like a lot of folks talk about. All of them but one were very good. But none of them were magical enough to make the list (the closest one was the Southern Star Amphitheatre in 1985). I got into the Dead late (in the late 70s), which may explain why I never caught one of the magical shows.

Honorable Mention: Commodores (around 1980), Earth, Wind and Fire (around 1980), Mother’s Finest (around 1977) and of course the Stones (any of the shows).

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For a Friend

Kinney’s Song

“I’m tired” he said
“It’s been another lost day.
I think I’ll just go to bed”

He smiled at me
“Don’t worry I’ll be OK.
Some shut eye is all I need”

Chorus:
I’ve walked down that suffering road before
And there is darkness all along the route
But past the haints and the widow’s weeds
Are thorny bushes with the sweetest fruit

“It’s hard” he said
“When you outgrow all the dreams
That used to fill up your head”

I touched his hand
“It’s not as bad as it seems,
And you are such a good man”

Chorus:
I’ve walked down that suffering road before
And there is darkness all along the route
But past the haints and the widow’s weeds
Are thorny bushes with the sweetest fruit

Bridge:
So if you want to sleep
Sleep, my friend sleep
And in the morning
You will see
That it’s all right
Everything will be fine
The sun will still rise
And you’ll still be a friend of mine

Chorus:
I’ve walked down that suffering road before
But there’s a light at the end of the route
And past the haints and the widow’s weeds
Are thorny bushes with the sweetest fruit

New Rancho Radio Set

RR05

I uploaded a brand new playlist to Rancho Radio tonight. Unlike the last 3 sets, which were picked at random from our huge song library, I hand picked this one. Lots of great alt. country, with a little extra southern rock added to the mix this week.

Rancho Radio has moved up to the 15th most popular station in the Americana genre on Live365. Please give it a listen and tell your friends about it. You’ll hear some great music that you simply can’t get anywhere else.

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Jukebox, Annotated

You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play. Each week, I add a little commentary about some of the artists, songs, albums, etc.

I’ve Got a Feeling – Ollie and the Nightingales (Stax Set) (1)
Hey Driver – Dale Watson (I Hate These Songs) (2)
Doobie Wah – Peter Frampton (Comes Alive) (3)
Laurentian Divide – Bellwether (Turnstiles) (4)
It’s Only Me – Todd Thibaud (Little Mystery) (5)
My First, My Last… – Barry White (Can’t Get Enough) (6)
I’m Troubled – Gourds (Shinebox) (7)
Mission District – Pinetop Seven (Bring Home the Last Great Strike) (8)
What a Nice Surprise – The Vidalias (Stayin’ in the Doghouse) (9)
A Little Italy Rag – The Amazing Rhythm Aces (Too Stuffed to Jump) (10)

(1) I don’t know much about this Memphis soul act, but it’s a good song from a great box set. Motown gets all the run, but Stax had some great acts and put out some fine music.

(2) Fine song by a guy who remains true to his throwback honky tonk roots.

(3) There are two double LP live records that served as the soundtrack for my teenage years, The Allmans’ At Fillmore East and this one. Frampton sort of fell out of favor over the years, but this remains an excellent record. Not quite of par with Fillmore, which along with the Dead’s Europe ’72, is the best live record ever made, but it still sounds real good.

(4) A slow moving, harmonica led groove by one of the many great bands from Minneapolis. Alt. Country doesn’t get much better than this.

(5) Good song off a good record by former Courage Brothers frontman. Great playing, great songs. I really enjoy this record.

(6) Barry and Teddy Pendergrass defined sexy soul music in the 70s.

(7) Austin’s best kept secret play a quirky (to quote allmusic.com) brand of honky tonk music. This album also has the one of the most amazing covers ever, a honked up version of Snoop Dog’s Gin and Juice.

(8) This fine inde/alt. country band formed at Vanderbilt University (where I went to law school) in the early nineties. Very eclectic mix of genres, but it really works. If you’ve never heard these guys, check them out.

(9) After I heard a song on the internet somewhere, I bought both of this Atlanta alt. country band’s records. They are both very good. This is a neo-country number that sounds like a cross between Dwight Yoakam and Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Good stuff.

(10) I’m a big fan of the Aces. This is not one of my favorites, but I have and enjoy every one of their records. Start with Full House, Aces High if you can find it.

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My Favorite Records:Al Green – Call Me

As we meander through my vast record collection, we are done with the numbers and now move into the letters. Because records are indexed on my music server under the artists’ first name, we’ll use the same convention here.

As my roommates and anyone else who knew me in college will gladly attest, from 1978-1982 was the middle of my “Al Green Phase.” I had such a jones for Al that for most of 1981 I hardly listened to anything else. I pretty much wore out all his pre-1976 records, but Call Me, from 1973, was and remains my favorite.

allgreencallmeIt starts out with the most soulful title track, which just may be the best boy longs for girl song ever. Next is the mellow, groove-filled Have You Been Making Out OK. It’s hard to describe what a hip, sad, cool, wistful vibe this song has. Stand Up puts a funky horn arrangement to an empowerment message. There are two excellent country covers- Hank Williams’ I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry and Willie’s Funny How Time Slips Away, the latter being my definitive version of the song. My two favorite songs are at the end of the record. You Ought to Be with Me, is a theme song for every guy who ever courted a girl. Jesus is Waiting is so funky that you have to pay attention to the words to remember that it’s a gospel number.

Oh, and by the way, there’s another top ten hit that I didn’t even mention- Here I Am (Come and Take Me).

The songs are all excellent, but what makes this my favorite Al Green record is the tight arrangements and excellent playing. Great guitar and horns (by the renowned Menphis Horns) throughout. And I don’t know what Al paid the drummer on these sessions (Booker T and the MGs drummer, Al Jackson, who also played on many of Otis Redding’s records, including Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay), but it wasn’t enough. This record is a clinic on how a drummer can be understated and still chase the melody. There is no song on which the drumming is front and center, but there is no song on which you don’t tap along with the beat.

I had an old Marantz stereo and speakers in my room in our apartment back then (Broadmoor Apartments, Winston-Salem, NC). I’d sit in this orange garage sale chair I had and listen to Al for hours and hours.

A great record by a master of soul.

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Jukebox, Uncensored

You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play. Each week, I add a little commentary about some of the artists, songs, albums, etc.

Sailor – Molly Hatchet (Beatin’ the Odds) (1)
Roy’s Bluz – Roy Buchanan (Live Stock) (2)
Handsome Molly – Bill Morrissey (A Collection of New Folk Artists) (3)
Soothe Me – Charles Brown (The Classic Earliest Recordings) (4)
All You Are Love – The Flatlanders (Now Again) (5)
Carry You Down – Son Volt (Wide Swing Tremolo) (6)
Where You Been – T-Model Ford (Pee-Wee get My Gun) (7)
Looking at the Rain – Gordon Lightfoot (Don Quixote) (8)
Cowboy – The Sugarcubes (Life’s too Good) (9)
Linger – Pinetops (Above Ground and Vertical) (10)

(1) The under-appreciated Jacksonville 3-guitar southern rock band’s third record, but the first without original vocalist Danny Joe Brown. A good song on a good record, but their first two records rock harder and better. I saw these guys in 1980 and they rocked the house.

(2) This is a great live record by a great, but often overlooked guitarist. This is the best song on the record and demonstrates why Roy was called “The Greatest Unknown Guitarist In The World.”

(3) It was this song on this compilation that turned me onto Bill Morrissey who for a number of years was my favorite songwriter. After hearing this song, I bought all three of his then-released records. This one is on Standing Eight, but both of his prior records, Bill Morrissey and North, are also excellent. The following one, Inside, is also excellent. His subsequent records don’t match up to the excellence of his first four. He hasn’t released a record since 2001, so I hope he’s due for another great one. I’ve seen him several times and he’s always good live.

(4) I really love blues piano, and Charles Brown along with Otis Spann and a few others hold a special place in my music collection. This song is a very old one and I tend to like his later stuff a little better. Still, it is a good song by a great piano player.

(5) Like everyone else, I have always loved their famous first album. This is a new one, released in 2002. This is a fairly straight forward love song by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and not one of my favorites. But any band with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock is worth hearing. If you’re looking to get into The Flatlanders, start with More a Legend than a Band, released in 1972 and rereleased in 1990 with some extra tracks.

(6) Granted, I like this record substantially less than their first two records, but it’s still pretty good. This is a mellow little number. Nothing spectacular, but worth a listen. Jay Farrar and some new bandmates have released a new record and, while I haven’t heard it yet, it’s getting some good reviews.

(7) Fine song off a fine record by a North Mississippi blues legend. Now that R.L. Burnside has joined Junior Kimbrough and Asie Payton in the juke joint in the sky, T-Model is one of the last of the Mississippi kings. This is hard, raw, bare blues. And it rocks.

(8) Nice cut off of a 1972 record by the Canadian who wrote what I consider to be one of the best and most musically and lyrically strong songs ever written: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This is a pretty good song. A little mellow, but that’s not always a bad thing.

(9) I don’t like this song much. For a brief period in the late 80’s I was captivated by Bjork’s voice, but this is a crappy song on an album that, for me, has not aged well at all.

(10) Great song off of a wistful alt. country record. This is mellow done correctly. I highly recommend this song and this record. Good stuff.

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Digital Music Update

The other day, when I was discussing the vast and unnecessary limitations that online music sellers place on downloaded music files via DRM, I decided to cancel my Rhapsody subscription because (a) Rhapsody is now owned by RealNetworks, maker of Real Player, that bloated and computer hogging software that I detest, and (b) there is a new version of Rhapsody that allows you to buy DRM infested downloadable music files. Previously, Rhapsody was a burn to CD only service (you ended up with CDs and not DRM infested music files).

Well, when I logged onto Rhapsody to cancel, I was quickly reminded of why I avoid RealNetworks software like the plague. When I finally found the page describing how to cancel your account, I found this little jewel:

rhapbs-744163

So, even though you can sign up, upgrade and buy music online, to cancel you are forced to call a telephone number and speak to someone. And of course the telephone number only works during business hours. I remember having the exact same problem in the past when trying to cancel RealNetworks services.

I’ll call on Tuesday. And I’ll vote with my keyboard and my wallet. No RealNetwork products. Not now, not ever.

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